Chapter 12 Calder #2
After fifteen winters of maintaining a stoic facade, it is this young woman who has begun to crack his control. He is farther from grace than ever since that fateful day he was forced to murder his wife and son.
He clutches her cloak, pulling it to his nose and inhaling her scent of blackwood tree flowers. What little control he possesses must be abandoned if there is any hope of finding her.
Someone in a cart shoves him to the side. When he lifts his head, he faces an expansive garden with high hedges fashioned like a maze.
She is not hiding, nor did she run.
Someone took his princess.
Calder drops her cloak and grits his teeth as he plunges into the gardens, searching for another clue to her location.
The Iss Drengr’s breath is steady, as all his energy focuses on his surroundings, listening for movement, voices, and anything that may guide him.
Shouts on the left pierce through the hedges, prompting him to pivot his course. His heavy boots barely squeak along the wet grass. Like a predator stalking its prey, he adapts to his environment, becoming one with the greenery that envelops him.
Around the next corner, he hears the sound of someone pissing into a flower bed.
And what do you know? A crescent moon is embroidered on his chest piece.
He didn’t even think to obscure his men on this kidnapping mission.
Calder seizes Jarl Guy's guard around the neck while simultaneously ripping his sword out of his hands and throwing it through a bush.
“Let go of me!” The guard’s struggle is depressing. He has play-wrestled with children in Kaldrgataness who put up a fiercer fight.
“Where is Princess Aura?” He growls near his ear, his fingers squeezing along his spine. Ice forms on the guard’s skin, followed by high-pitched screams.
The guard panics and attempts to free himself, but Calder lifts him from the ground.
“Where is she?” His eyes flash with fury as he is far too close to ripping him apart at the seams.
“Fuck off, Iss Drengr!” He barely utters the last word before ice creeps along his neck, encircling his jaw. The man gasps for air as his throat freezes shut. Calder drops the body, shattering it into pieces.
As he rushes along the shrub maze, he takes some relief from knowing Aura is nearby. What he cannot understand is why they dragged her in here. Why not take her straight to their longship?
The next lookout's heavy breathing betrays him before he rounds the next hedge. He scratches through the branches, intentionally alerting the guard as he circles.
“Hello?” The soldier spins around, brandishing a blade in his shaky grip. “Show yourself!”
Calder pushes through the bushes, clutching the front of his tunic. “Where is Aura?” His words are barely coherent as he rains spittle upon his face.
Nothing but a squeak emanates from the worthless excuse for a warrior.
“Where is she?”
He can smell the piss as the guard’s fear gets the better of him.
Calder slams the man face down into the grass, and with the heel of his boot, he stomps on his back.
A crack fills their space in the garden, followed by the man’s ear-splitting screams. Calder freezes his body, leaving him to die a slow, miserable death as his ice penetrates his brain.
Aura’s braided bracelet lies nearly hidden in the roots of a massive tree further along the path.
Smart girl leaving breadcrumbs.
He slips it into his pouch before edging around a corner and discovering himself in the heart of the gardens, where a massive willow tree dominates the space.
Aura is in the middle of what must typically be a serene enclosure. Her arms are restrained behind her back by a tall, thick guard while another brandishes a dagger in front of her face.
“The Chief said he would meet us here. He cannot be too far away.” The guard holding Aura keeps glancing over his shoulder, anticipating their leader's arrival.
“The Queen plans to burn the wench when we return.” The one holding the dagger taps the flat of the blade to her lovely cheek. “There’s no rule against fucking her before she’s sacrificed.”
The sound of fabric ripping greets Calder as he enters the scene. His hands shake with a righteous fury he believed he could no longer possess.
Guy’s wretched men have sliced her lovely green dress down the middle, exposing her bare breasts to the increasingly frigid air growing with each step he takes.
At his appearance, Aura snarls and fights, snapping at any skin unlucky enough to get close to her mouth. It’s then he notices a third man, face down with an axe handle protruding from his back.
Carved into the handle are Salt runes.
What a good girl you are, Princess.
“Iss Drengr,” the guard restraining her sneers. “Chief, thought you might be near. Seeing as you are the Princess’ guard dog.” He laughs as he tugs her arms tighter.
“Let her go, and you will live.” Calder does not intend to let either of these men walk away from this alive.
“Will you share your toy with us, Jarl Avardsson?” Dagger man responds while running a finger along her jaw, as if Calder doesn’t see red.
Aura tries to pull away, but he strikes her so hard that her body recoils. The man unsheathes his sword with a pompous chuckle. “What shall you do now, Iss Drengr? Without a weapon to show your might?”
I am the weapon.
He kneels to the ground and slams his fist into the warm grass. The sound of cracking reverberates from his knuckles as ice consumes the green space and vanishes into the rest of the hedge maze.
With a feral grin, he slams his fist into the ground again. A blizzard assaults the area, bringing wind chills that no creature can survive. When he releases his seidr, the swirling snow and ice blast through the gardens, leaving nothing but frozen guards and an eerie silence in their wake.
Where Aura stood is now an ice sphere. He rushes forward, touches the crystal, and watches as it melts away. She cowers with her arms over her head but otherwise appears unharmed.
At his appearance, her fingers clutch her dress over her exposed chest. Amidst last month's chaos, he missed the nautilus shell tattoo over her heart and the series of knots encircling her upper left arm.
She is lovely and safe.
He glances at the carnage and stumbles away from her precious life. He had ensured no harm would befall her.
But at what cost?
Any connection to Aura rocks his seidr to a dangerous intensity.
“Calder…” she whispers his name, shattering his cold, frozen heart. “Calder, please, look at me.” She continues in that same calm voice.
There is no worry or apprehension from his actions.
She accepts him not just as Jarl Calder Avardsson but as the Iss Drengr. Undoubtedly, she is privy to the stories of his brutality, yet she stands with her head held high and those beautiful eyes burning with a desire for him to embrace her.
No, he cannot, and not only because his touch is deadly, but also because he cannot betray the Lord Commander, who has done so much for him over the decades. Exposing his daughter to his icy depravity is despicable.
Even as he accepts his fate to stay away from her, he would still give anything to brush aside those soft curls and dominate those lips.
But protecting her against Jarl Guy’s men was the final straw. Every damn moment he spends in her presence pushes him closer to losing his precious control over his powers.
I know the darkness that awaits me in Skalor. If Lavinia were to discover the cherished young woman I am slowly embracing, it would mean the end for both of us.
Only one path is clear. One route to ensure her safety as his abilities threaten to overwhelm him.
“Leave, Princess.”
She blinks and takes an emboldened step forward, loosening her grip on her gown. “You cannot force me away. You do not frighten me.”
She is perfect.
“You cause me to lose all sense of control of my seidr!” He avoids her gaze and strokes his beard, feeling tension building inside him. “Leave, my Princess. Return to Blackwood, where you are safe.” His tone is cruel, unflinching.
She grips his forearm, tugging him until he relinquishes and sets his gaze upon her beautiful, pained expression and her heaving breasts. “Why are you doing this to me? What have I done to you?”
Calder motions to the frozen ground. “Can you not see the devastation I wrought in your presence? Every moment you are with me is agony as I cannot restrain myself.”
“Restrain yourself from what? Please,” she places her hands on his chest, “help me understand what is happening!”
He pins her tiny wrists in one grasp. He takes her jaw in an unrelenting grip.
“I have spent too long restraining my powers to prevent further ruin!” He growls in her face, causing her to shudder.
“When my emotions…” he looks away, hardly able to admit his weakness, “My heart remains frigid for a reason.”
Her eyes search his, desperate to understand him.
“What does this have to do with me?” Her question is so innocent, filled with an overwhelming yearning for passion that he can never provide.
“I need you.” He snarls into her ear. “In vile ways. I would own you completely. You would be mine to corrupt, my Princess. And in my possession, I would lose myself, and you would fall into the Abyss at my side.”
She shakes her head in disbelief. “Calder, let me-”
“No!” He barks, and the ice crystals along the ground shoot upward, forming dangerous spikes as tall as his knees. “The Norn, in their sick wisdom, have only mocked us. You are heir to the throne of Treland. You are young enough to be my daughter.”
I would shatter all the realms to make you mine.
“I’ve never cared about any of that!” Her trembling hands fist at her sides.
“It is time we parted ways.”
He cannot bring himself to tell her the truth or allow Lavinia and the Jarls to use her against him. Just as he cannot allow his seidr to destroy the Endless Shore to shield her from his demons. He must consider the fate of his people and hers!
Therefore, he focuses on the fury and turmoil. “I could never be with someone like you. I don’t want you, Aura.”
Finally, she stumbles back. Hurt, betrayal, and anger flood her features. She lifts her hand as if to smack him across the face, but tugs her hand to her chest before vanishing into the frozen maze.